It is with no surprise that with each guest we continue to become even more inspired and if you have been following us for awhile now, we are willing to bet you may agree! After every new connection we make with a woman who wants to share her story we are left in amazement about how much one story can make such a huge, positive impact for another person. Last Wednesday our guest, Vanessa Palencia, shared her magnificent story with The Red Bra Project. Vanessa is a natural beauty both inside and out. She became vulnerable with our audience and opened up about being a teenage single mother, her life struggles with hearing loss, and her insanely supportive man in her life that she is to wed oh so very soon!
The aftermath left her feeling extremely self-conscious and by the sixth grade she stopped wearing color molds. In an attempt to hide her aids, Vanessa also stopped wearing her hair up all together. Many of her friends from junior high up until now, never knew she had any hearing loss as Vanessa would do everything in her power to hide & cover – up her disability.
Today, Vanessa’s challenges, growth from acceptance and heart ache as well as learning to love who she is has empowered her to stand up and out for others by sharing her own story. She embraces her disability and is now proud to have it be part of her story of learning how to accept her own self-identity. Vanessa’s amazing fiancé has lovingly encouraged her to wear her hair up on their wedding day. LOVE THIS!! She states that he has played a big role in helping her to discover how to learn to love and embrace her disability.
Self-acceptance does not stop the discrimination she continues to face whenever she tells people that she is hard of hearing – it is very real. She has had people completely ignore her, raise their voices at her, or back away in fear, as she states like she is some sort of cyborg alien. As this sentence is typed up, it is hard to believe that this type of callus reaction is triggered by a disability, but it has been. Her humor and resiliency through it all is humbling. Vanessa wants to make it her mission to start providing more accessibility to the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Vanessa loves building other women up. She told us that she spent about two years working on and developing her own self-worth and value. She wants other women to be able to take something from her journey and have faith that they will also find their OWN self confidence, if they are currently struggling. Sometimes it takes work and that’s OK. Through social media and her online magazine, Polarity Magazine, Vanessa reminds women that they have the power to make a positive impact on this world. She believes that it all starts with being vulnerable & sharing a story – which is probably why she is such a rock star in our heart. She wants women to raise their voices and love who they are despite self-perceived flaws. Remember, YOU are not alone, we ALL have doubts that creep in time to time, that is perfectly normal.
Polarity Magazine is an online magazine that Vanessa and her co – founders & friends strive to empower others through. She and her friends were tired of reading the popular magazines and really not pulling any meaningful or relevant stories from them. They wanted to create a magazine that was authentic and showed vulnerability., connecting people through stories. Hey, hey! Very similar the The Red Bra Project’s mission! The trio works to encourage women that their stories matter and have a purpose. The belief is that others can share their struggles to help people learn important lessons and takeaways.
To learn more about Vanessa and her incredible optimistic lifestyle be sure to follow her on Instagram @vanessapalencia15.
Vanessa would also encourage you to follow and use the hashtag #bombardyourselfwithlove. The idea is to use this hashtag as a reminder that sometimes the only way to get over negative thoughts and emotions is to overcome your resistance to those things with love, even when you don’t really feel like overcoming it. Ohhh my gosh, we think this idea is SOOOOO good! Definitely noted in our daily habit list – what do you think?!
If you are interested in learning more about her magazine Polarity it can be found at http://polaritymagazine.com/ And finally if you have not watched already you must take a few minutes out of your day to watch her powerful interview over on our YouTube Channel.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading. We’d love to hear from you if you have or know someone we should connect with to highlight on a future blog post or episode! One story can change so much for someone who needs it at just the right time!
Much love,
The Red Bra Project
